Rarotonga

When I learned of the Oceanic Performance Biennial and the organizers’ call for participation, the idea appealed to me. The event will be held on Rarotonga from July 23rd to August 1st, 2015 under the title of “Sea Change” and is organized under the auspices of Emergent Ecologies, Performance Studies inernational and AUT Art & Design. Just in time before the deadline, I handed in my proposal for a performance installation. Now I have to be patient and hope for acceptance.

Whether it will be accepted or not, I will go ahead with the project anyway, because it also fits in nicely within the scope my current research. In my mind I immediately saw the Edna and wanted to make a “Spirit Sail” for her. Spirit, here not to be thought of as spiritualism, but rather as absolute freedom. Absolute (from Latin absolutus = detached, freed, unrestricted), detached from material restrictions and free to wander on, rest-less, leaving her rusty remains behind, and fluid, iron and copper dissolving in rain and seawater into rust and verdigris. In a processual work I aim to touch this restlessness in its chemical and inorganic compossibility, using the fragile remains of the Edna as support for ‘printing’ onto cloth.

The material form of the rusting iron hull binds to the cloth, producing some memento mori, some ‘still-life’. Memory of touch will be re-membered, enhanced, and added-to in a sequence of technical processes such as wrapping, binding, dyeing, printing, sewing, exposure to elements, layering, composition and decomposition. It is my aim to take these “Spirit Sails” on a voyage between islands, installing and altering them in different oceanic locations until they reach Rarotonga.

This will become a visual diary of the project’s practical process and development.